Lonely Hearts Club, BTS Edition, Chapter XVIII : Kublai Khan

[Bleys]

First report, but before I begin, I just have to compliment Rolo once again on a fantastic looking map. Plenty of land for us, but there are so many ways to set up cities, and so many approaches, I can already tell we will see a TON of variances this game. Sometimes, the Mansa game for example, all the cities get set down on all the same spots on everyones map, makes it kinda boring, since the "thought process" behind city placement is one of the key elements to this concept.

Well picked rolo, already thoroughly enjoying this map.

Now for my report, Checkpoint #1, 4000 BC - 900 BC, Monarch, Epic speed

Spoiler :

I settled in place, despite the temptation of wandering a bit with my Settler. I knew we would end up on a snakey looking island, and quite often, the games algorithm doesnt place its "suggestions" the way Humans do. However, the Plains hill, the bare hills close by, the seafood, etc, I decided to settle in place.

Started with Fishing and a worker, but not having a 3H tile for a quick workboat, and not starting with Mining, I decided to let the worker finish, while I teched Mining, before starting a Work Boat. This worked out decently well, since the Worker came out almost at the same time as Mining finished, and he had plenty to do while I teched BW. Scout popped around a bit, and discovered how the land was layed out. Mountains blocked part of our island, and more islands to the south. This made me decide to build a 2nd WB immediately after the first to explore, before even bothering with a garrison unit. In fact, I built 3 Workboats back to back to back, first went to a clam, 2nd explored, 3rd went to the other clam. BW came in during all this, giving me the good news, Copper in the BFC and it was already hooked up! Of course, the downside of this meant Spearmen or Axemen as garrison units until Archery, instead of dirt-cheap warriors, but oh well. I teched Sailing after BW, and chopped the forests on the silk for a Galley quickly. I wanted to get the 2nd and 3rd settlers out as I built the GLH, and move them over to the other islands quickly, especially the Marble area for the Oracle. When the galley was done, I moved my scout to pop the other huts, and got some gold and a Warrior (first hut was also a Warrior)

So, after Galley, Spearman for garrison, and Settler (which settled 3N of the stone, thinking CRE would get me the stone by the time I wanted to try for the Mids, and grabbing a larger portion of the FPs), I stared the Greater Lighthouse, which I landed fairly easily, while pumping out 2 more settlers and shuttling them over to the cut off marble area and the other island. I altered my original plan to get the Horses when I popped them on AH, not that Keshiks will be important anyway.

So here is where I sit, 4 cities, 2 more settlers coming out, trying to build the ToA in Capitol and Oracle in the Marble city.

Capitol is decent, good growth with the clams, good production from the Copper and the mine on the plains hill. Calendar will make this a solid Bureaucracy cap.

After the Oracle, the Marble city will make a settler as well, to settle the Fish and Floodplains up there, with room for a 3rd city on that chunk of land with the Silk. One of the settlers coming out now will be dropped down on the Iron island, and since I can see an AI border at the edge of the fog, I expect to meet him soon. Not sure who it is, Persia or Greece, I think. The blues kind of look alike to me, heh.

All in all, an outstanding map, with awesome possibilities. I hope I get both the Colossus and Temple of Artemis, so I can see how solid the synergy of these Wonders are for comparison to the new Monarchist Cookbook game I am playing in. Of special interest to me is how well my economy stays afloat REXIng with these 3 Wonders, and how well "city overlap" works out if I pack more cities in just for the Traderoute income.

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

1155 AD, Monarch level, Marathon speed

Spoiler :

I'm now aware of the remaining 4 idiots, 3 of them being Sitting Bull, Kwan Won (Voluntary vassal of Boobica) and Boobica, are in a confussion love fest with the Appol Palace too boot...damm Bull

the 4th Idiot, who I assume took out Ghandi, unless the barbs did, is ............

Spoiler :

Monty *Has any one seen Monty?? View attachment 175567

Ghandi was gone in 2875 BC.....Barbs or Monty, who's now going to be backward as my pants bottom.

Zara, was Eliminated in 575 AD by Boobie special, Wang, Just got trapped on his little Peninsula, and only got 1 barb city off it, Bull's just sat back, rexed and built up a nice little tech horde.

I met Wang through his sighted boarders under optics while I was sailing my galley about the Southern island or iron / fish. Met Boobie as well, and traded them Philosphy/Paper for Machinary, Mono, horse back, construction, archery and compass....... I think I'm infront on that deal..

Dropped Education to them for Fued, optics, engin, theology, I barely made a profit on that, didn't think to ask for war...but all pleased/friendly...maybe I should have..Boo Boo..

Might try a 3 way Dip on them v's Bull, but as he's founded Confuss...I dont' see it working unless he goes Free Religion.

Oh yeah, I used up 2 engineers, 1 for Shar Paya, for free Religion, as all religions were gone by 50 ad bar 1 and in total by 680 ad. 2nd engineer rushed?? Umm Uni of Sankor..Purely for denial purposes...didnt' know I had paper on them all at time...didn't even meet them by then.

I've just teched off Liberialism, taken Nationalism, building the Taj, and teching Astronomy for trade.

Wonders so far, Collossus.*rather late as I forgot about it*, Pyramids, Parthenon, Great Libairy, Lighthouse, Wall, Missed ToA, Missed M of M, (more worried about Sher Paya which I got (Free Religion, ).

Currently building Hagia Sofia,and Taj, Hagia, I don't expect to get, Taj I do..

Science currently running at about 280 B/Turn, though it say's lower? Multipliers? (212 B/Turn) Running a Full food economy/specialist economy.

Tech's to now, Umm Lit, Mono ( to allow Sher Paya), Caste, Beaur, Paper, (These I traded once I had education), Phil (bulb), Edu (full research), Lib (Traded rest once I was 1 off Lib.)View attachment 175566

I should beat Wang around the world, as he's yet to go by my lands, and I just need to pass Monty officially.

Looking good, still to settle 2 cities, the city with levy/clam on eastern side of Jungle, and the Iron fish Island to the south.

Oh yes, I got the Spice event 1 tile north of the capitals BFC, paid 23 gold for a Plantation to be built with forest cleared and road, as all my workers (all 4) were off in the Northern 1/2 of continent.

Going to bed now, it's 4:11 am with 1/2 a bottle of wine...

 

[Bleys]

Checkpoint 2.5, through 1150 AD

Spoiler :

Things went well. I got the Oracle, took MC, and as I was already building some forges, I got some pleasant news:

NICE! Got a few more Wonders as well, Colossus, ToA, as planned. Teched CoL, was first, teched CS and Machinery, missed Taoism by a few turns, but I am sure I am in the lead for Lib.

I continued along, hooked up the Stone and went for the Mids, and scored!

Iron island popped borders and I met Wang. Then, I got a nice bonus down there:

Sweet. Went along, building more Wonders, popped a GE, and used them to build the AP. I founded both Confu and Christianity. So far I have hit 5 GP altogether, first was a Merchant, settled him, then another Merchant went for Currency. 3rd was the GE I burned on the AP, and 4th was the Artist from Music. 5th is another GE, who is currently sitting in my cap until I decide what to do.

Traded some backfill techs from Wang, but after Paper, I got this one off him. Might lose the Sistine Chapel because of it, but I doubt it.

The reason I doubt it was that I also teched Calendar and built MoM (I have 3 cities building wonders). So right after this trade, I popped the GA for a Golden Age, and I am planning to get quite a bit done.

Its time for Barracks in all cities, and at least an LB in every city to support the Spearman in them (traded Wang for Fued a while back as well). Gers and Keshiks as well, I plan to make a bunch of them even through I doubt they will see any military action. They are outstanding Pillagers, though, best in the game IMHO. They will accompany all my post-Astro stacks.

The trade got me the map, so I know half of my opponents. A Celt (not sure which yet) Zara and Sitting Bull. Argh, 2 Pro civs on the closest landmass, and another that is likely to be a unit-spammer, since both Celt leaders tend to play that way. Conquest could be rough, but still planning to have a go, heh. I am pretty sure I could lock up a Culture win now, especially if I tech Divine Right, and land it.


Heres the cap, I also built the HG, since I noticed this map had a lack of both Happy AND Health resources. But every city is coastal, every city can support itself from trade routes alone, and ever city will have Harbors soon enough. Building 2 Caravels right now, and will post another report when I meet the rest of the AIs. Loving this game so far.

 

[Solon70]

Monarch/Normal, my first checkpoint at 2000 BC, complete with my first-ever attempt at a dotmap:

Spoiler :

My typical meandering tech path went Fishing>Mining>BW>Pottery>Sailing>Masonry>Mysticism. After exploring the initial island, I sent my scout over on a galley to pick up that enticing goody hut, which gave me:

Just as I was getting ready to crank out my first settler, I got a welcome but poorly-timed random event:

I find it almost impossible to say no to the permanent +2 health bonus. But at this particular moment, just as I was getting ready to whip out a bunch of settlers, 20 turns of extra whip weariness isn't what I was hoping for. Does anyone think I shouldn't have taken the health bonus?

Here is my attempt at a dotmap for 2000 BC, with my first settler still in the queue:

I've never done a dotmap before, and maybe this one sucks (my line-drawing ability certainly does), but I've found one of my weaknesses is that I spread my cities out too far and waste territory. Here, I figure if I can cottage the whole island by putting 3 cities on the SE island, with one food resource apiece, that has to be better than 2 cities which won't overlap but will leave out some usable tiles. All these cities will pay for themselves - particularly if I manage to get the GLH or Colossus.

The production city north of Karkorum is a bit of a stretch but the more I think about it, the less I see anything wrong with it. And on this map, I really have to take my production wherever I can find it. I'll settle on the plains hill for +1 hammer and farm the flood plains to allow me to work 2 more grassland hills straight away. That's useful.

The orange city on the SE island could be moved 1 tile to the SE, which would pick up a fresh water bonus. Am I right, though, that if you settle on a riverside tile, you pick up the health bonus but lose the normal commerce from the tile? I'm not sure if I need the fresh water bonus in that city.

Here's a non-dotmapped view of the world in 2000 BC:

Any comments at all are greatly appreciated.

 

[patagonia]

@ Bleys:

Spoiler :

Looks like you're in a strong position.

Be careful though - you may be digging a hole for yourself by feeding Wang techs like this since he can trade them around to everyone else on his continent and reap more of a benefit than you.

It'd be a good idea to get a boat and/or scout over there ASAP to meet the others. Will BtS let you do that if you've got OB, or can you only go in ocean squares inside your own cultural borders?

@ Solon:

Spoiler :

You may come to regret not gambling on the +2 on this map, especially if you keep your cities away from fresh water bonuses like most of the ones on your dotmap; on the plus side they're all coastal which means they'll get a boost to health from harbours.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Yeah, i got my ass kicked. Isolation kicks my ass on emperor. On monarch it's too easy. I'm gonna stay at monarch for these games from now on unless it's a really strong leader.

 

[Bleys]

Patagonia:

Spoiler :

Its only your own ocean squares, and yes, I did feed Wang too much, he is almost even with me tech-wise. Still, my position is solid, I have met all the AIs myself, and I should have no trouble with a win. Which VC is the choice now, and I am determined to get a Conquest win on one of these!

 

[Solon70]

@patagonia:

Spoiler :

@ Solon:

You may come to regret not gambling on the +2 on this map, especially if you keep your cities away from fresh water bonuses like most of the ones on your dotmap; on the plus side they're all coastal which means they'll get a boost to health from harbours.

I think I was unclear, I did choose to take the +2 health bonus from the event. It's just that the 20 turns of whip weariness, on top of what I already had in my capital, really held me back at a time when I was eager to expand.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Yeah, i got my ass kicked. Isolation kicks my ass on emperor. On monarch it's too easy. I'm gonna stay at monarch for these games from now on unless it's a really strong leader.

I feel this way too. I cheesed out a win...I doubt I could have won any other way than I did, and it was balls cheap.

Emperor is odd...I had a NICE tech lead, and it was gone in a FLASH?! WTH?

It's somewhat map dependent too though. Imagine a LHC game where all of the civs on one continent wind up being semi aggressive financial (but not enough to attack each other) religious buddies, who won't spread it to you and hate you. Tech fest! That might be kind of rough even on monarch. Then, if you get something ridiculous like MONTY VS SHAKA AND NOBODY IS WINNING IT, you can probably take infantry to their longbows even on emperor .

I can't quit on emperor now that I've tried moving up (and had at least some success finally). It feels extremely challenging but winnable. I've got a better grip of city specialization by this point, but now it's all strategic...whats the optimal decision at a given point? War? Tech? Bribe others to war and mediate if someone starts winning? I still call it wrong too often, and such judgment errors are particularly devastating on emperor in isolation .

 

[Bleys]

Imagine a LHC game where all of the civs on one continent wind up being semi aggressive financial (but not enough to attack each other) religious buddies, who won't spread it to you and hate you. Tech fest!

Dont have to imagine it, played it, check the Gandhi thread, LOL. Many of us made the mistake of founding Hinduism, which left the other AIs as a big happy block of Buddhists, and it was rough. Even Shaka and De Gaulle were over there. However, avoiding any of the first 3 religions led to wildly different game where many more wars were fought and the tech situation was much stronger for the human.

 

[Solon70]

Checkpoint 2, 1300 AD:

Spoiler :

After recovering from the seemingly endless unhappiness from the +2 health event, I got some production going again and built everyone's favorite isolation wonder in 475 BC:

I tried to build the ToA as well but lost out by 3 turns. I did, however, manage to pick up another nice wonder on this map:

My wonder-building efforts were aided by building my 2nd city on stone and my 3rd on marble. I found I still had trouble expanding at a good pace, though: it wasn't until 175 AD that I founded my 6th city, which seems like a crime in isolation with this much good land available.

One problem that I have with these mega-commerce cities is that there's literally no production to get your basic buildings up (granary, lighthouse, courthouse, commerce multipliers). Do people just rely on the whip to get these built?

In 1100 AD I discovered Optics and nervously began the process of seeking first contact. I also finally got around to colonizing the island to the SE of me, where barbs had helpfully built 2 cities in excellent spots I could keep.

In 1200 AD I met my first AI, and was relieved to find that I was in pretty decent shape tech-wise:

Just a couple turns later, I met my second AI, who turned out to be quite close to the SE of me; I'm not sure if I missed an earlier chance to encounter his cultural borders. Again, I was in pretty good shape tech-wise:

But what really struck me was that he barely seemed to have any cities! In fact, SB was WAY ahead of me in score (I'm not sure why, given our tech parity), but Wang Kon was way behind. It was like exploring in the wilderness and finding a man who's been mauled by a bear; hopefully he understands that your first concern is with the bear rather than him.

Sailing my caravel in the opposite direction, I met Gandhi, who was doing pretty well tech-wise and didn't seem to be in contact with either of the other civs:

Next civ, and I noticed something interesting in the trade window:

City of P'yongyang! I guess we've found our "bear." In fact, I hadn't even made contact with Boudica for real, I had met her by virtue of Wang Kon vassalizing to her.

Normally I try not to start trading if I can help it until I meet all the civs, just so I don't accidentally trade with everyone's worst enemy, but I had some techs to backfill and it's hard to resist a deal like this:

How often do you get anything for Metal Casting in 1270 AD?! Boudica's world map revealed that she had handled both Korea and Ethiopia pretty handily.

I met Zara Yaqob, who offered me this enticing deal:

Uh, thanks but no thanks.

Gandhi offered me this deal, which I took to get to Guilds and Banking faster:

Even though Gandhi is doing pretty well in tech, I didn't see a downside because he's not in contact with the other civs and can't broker anything.

Here's where things stand with my main cities in 1300 AD:

Here's the southern islands, which I've just settled:

And here's the next decision I have to make:

I'm enough of a newbie to LHC that I'm not sure what to do. Should I grab Astronomy - even at the cost of losing the Colossus - in hopes of getting rich through foreign trade routes? I could sure use a few extra health/happiness resources, too. Or should I beeline Liberalism, which would take about 25 turns?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

@ SimonL

Spoiler :

Yes, I relied extensively on the whip in this one (though I eased off in my capitol after a while). Coastal areas are notoriously production poor (and other than the capitol and the region just above it, which is food poor, this area was no exception). HOWEVER, the seafood everywhere allowed for ridiculous expansions. I'd make a settler then a work boat for new cities out of the capitol, and basically the new cities were working seafood almost immediately - nice commerce boost, excellent food boost.

Point is, there's TONS of food with all that seafood. Whip turns food into hammers, which you otherwise don't have. Since pop grows back pretty quickly, you don't have to shy off as much from whipping 2 or even 3 pop for useful buildings (usually 2 in early game, it's rare that you have the pop for 3 pop whips that early on). Man, I whipped so much. I actually went generic though and just got the mids (basically no other wonders), though with rep and the amount of cities I had it was around 70 BPT at 1 AD and closer to 90 by 150 AD or so. That's pretty sound for me! I like heavy seafood actually.

Note: If you can win the lib race, WIN THE LIB RACE, then take astronomy with it. Astronomy is an incredibly beaker-heavy tech, and not only that, you get the trade routes. Getting lib nerfs it away from the AI, opens up useful civic, etc. Once you have Astro, the AI tends strangely to neglect it for longer, but the priority should be both if you can win lib. If not, it depends on what you want to do.

 

[Solon70]

3rd Checkpoint, 1575 AD:

Spoiler :

From the last update, I decided to beeline Liberalism and take Astronomy, as advised, which was easy enough to do. Not only did Astronomy give me all those yummy foreign trade routes (basically cancelling out the loss of the Colossus), but it enabled me to trade for all kinds of happy/health resources I lacked, enabling my cities to grow past the 12/13 level where they had stagnated.

The tech screen at 1575 AD looks like this:

The state of world politics is pretty simple. Gandhi and Monty are on one continent, locked in what seems like a pretty even battle. SB and Boudica are antagonists on the other continent, with Korea and Ethiopia as Boudica's vassals.

I see no point in aiming for a military solution. An attack on any of the four world powers will just make the rival of that power stronger. Although I'm ahead of all 4 in tech, an overseas war would be a long, bloody struggle unless I could, say, reach the modern age with a big lead.

I think it makes far more sense to shore up my defenses, make sure I'm on basically good terms with everyone, and sit in my little fortress and tech to space. Right now I'm at 372 bpt with the slider at 60%, a little lower than I'd like, but I'm getting the buildings up right now that I'll need for Oxford and Wall Street. My smaller cities are gearing up to provide new commerce powerhouses, and I'll be able to switch to US for production once it's spaceship time.

If anyone has advice on how to close the deal from here I'm all ears.

 

[ungy]

immortal, normal speed.
I get a rough draw and then I make it worse from there.

Spoiler :

my game starts out fine--I get the GLH, mids, pop an engineer for the GLib. I see Korean culture and settle early on the iron island to the east--this gets me some tech trades early but nothing else.
I'm slow to settle the NE section as I get a barb event there and have to assemble some troops to go over.
I get tao then when I hit CS I hem and haw about whether to take pacifism.
I eventually decide against pacifism as I'm too close to lib and I think I'll need FR to trade. However, I forget to take bureau. This I notice when I hit lib (astro).
My bad draw is that SB is a monster--more than double my score without a vassal (yet).
I hurry to dem and take the SOL--I figure I better deny that for sure.

SB looked like he was going cultural for a bit but is now back on research.

I get to rifling and draft a bit. Most of my army is facing SB as we are annoyed when Monte attacks and captures 2 lightly defended cities.

The move here is that I revolted out of nat the turn before I was attacked (bad luck) but also 1 turn away from Oxford. So away went 2 unis--then I miscount, etc. and out of stubborness delay research too long waiting to get them up. Then I pop into the top half and lose some tech trades due to WFYABTA.....all together not a pretty picture.

So now I'm a little stuck--not sure how I can bring this one home.
I'm thinking I'll start in on Monte as I may need uranium.

Unortunately I've popped I think 5GS in a row trying to get a merchant or eng for corp.

Any advice on how to bring this one home is appreciated.

 

[Solon70]

Final report - victory is mine!

Spoiler :

In the last post I announced my intention to win via space race. As it turns out, exactly one year after completing the Apollo Program - I won a diplomatic victory in 1944 AD!

Without a doubt, the key to this victory was founding Mining Inc in 1874 - a conclusion I stand by even though it ended up as a diplomatic victory. But I might be getting ahead of myself...

Even though my relations with the rest of the world were solid, my production wasn't good enough during the middle stages of the game and my power rating fell way behind, leading Boudica to declare war on me in the late 1700's. My mistake was that I succumbed to the temptation to cottage spam and dropped the ball on specializing a couple of production cities - those cities should have been pumping units all the while. Boudica took one of my southern island cities, but I managed to regroup and take it back with superior technology. I defeated her navy and considered taking the fight to her mainland, but both she and her vassal Wang Kon had riflemen up by the time I got my own riflemen there, and I hadn't had the chance to build much siege, so there was no point.

I repeatedly tried to sue for peace, only to find that Boudica insisted on getting the city I had won back from her. That hardly seems fair! After about 15 turns of this, it occurred to me to ask if she would take a tech instead of the city, and she agreed. I had enough of a tech lead over her that it didn't seem like a big deal, and she immediately returned to Pleased.

Back before the war, I had decided on a long-term plan of founding Mining Inc. to get my production going. The tricky part was that I had very little in the way of GPP, and I needed a GE to found it. I selected one of my production cities (the HE city, in fact), started running an engineer there, and built the NE to double the GPP - creating the rarely-seen HE/NE synergy! So throughout the war, while my HE city was pumping units, it was also working on producing the GE I'd need down the road.

As a separate part of the plan, I identified the city that would host Wall Street as well as my corporate headquarters. This is an exceptionally powerful synergy because it makes it profitable to spam the corporation in every single city. By the end of the game, I was paying 50g/turn in corporate maintenance, but making 120g in my WS city off the corp alone, thanks to the multiplier. And between Mining Inc. and US, even my commerce cities without a single production tile became decent in production.

With the increase in production, I was able to build modern units and get my power rating back to respectable levels. I signed a defensive pact with Gandhi, so when Monty declared war on me around 1900, he was distracted by the second front with Gandhi and the war was pretty much a nonfactor. I rushed a few machine guns and he couldn't make headway.

The real benefit of my newfound production is that I not only had a tech lead, but I was able to build virtually every modern wonder (except the SoL, tragically). Kremlin, Eiffel Tower, all 3 happiness wonders, even Cristo Redentor. And in the midst of all that, it occurred to me that it would be useful to build the UN, because I was well behind in population and wouldn't be eligible to run for Secretary-General if someone else built it. And since Sitting Bull and not my buddy Gandhi was first in population, this meant I'd actually have a decent voting bloc that could get resolutions passed. Mind you, without the extra production I had created for myself, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to squeeze the UN amongst researching towards space and spamming units to help my power rating.

After I built the UN and won the election, I immediately called for a diplomatic victory vote to see if I had a chance - considering I was still building the Apollo Program and had quite a few spaceship techs left to research. Gandhi (#2 in pop) voted for me, Wang Kon (way too small to matter) voted for SB, and everyone else abstained. With Boudica still at pleased, I counted the votes and saw an opportunity. I gifted some spare techs to her as well as her vassals, which was helpful, but didn't quite get me to Friendly with any of them.

By a quirk of fate, though, Boudica had decided to slip a missionary into my capital a few turns previously and give me Hinduism, her state religion as well as that of her vassals. I considered the merits of switching to Hinduism, but realized that it would probably drop me back to Pleased with Gandhi. So I gifted Gandhi a tech for an extra bonus, converted to Hinduism (my first religion of the game) and voila! Boudica and Zara both moved up to Friendly, while the -2 from Gandhi for heathen religion no longer affected his status. So when the UN vote came up again, the results were to my liking:

I've only recently moved up to Monarch, and something I noticed at the lower levels was that an isolated start was no big deal since I could build up a strong economy all on my own and blow everyone away with a massive tech lead. In this game, although I did enjoy a pretty clear tech lead over everyone but Gandhi by the end, the challenge was considerably more difficult. All the other civs had more land than me, and there was never really an opportunity for me to expand militarily, so I had to make the most of what I had. In fact, if we look at the final demographics, we see that I didn't have a clear lead in any aspect of the game. Diplomacy and creative building of my economy were what won this for me.

Thanks to the LHC for a really fun time on this one!

 

[Bleys]

Wow Solon, your game went WAY different than mine. Still in my stage 3, trying to decide on a VC. Trying my normal "get impatient and try to conquer the other continents with a few Galleons loaded with Rifles" but its not working out so well, LOL.

 

[Solon70]

Ever since I moved up to Monarch I'm having a really hard time figuring out how to wage an effective war. Still, at least there are other ways to win!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Wow Solon, your game went WAY different than mine. Still in my stage 3, trying to decide on a VC. Trying my normal "get impatient and try to conquer the other continents with a few Galleons loaded with Rifles" but its not working out so well, LOL.

I could always do something like that at monarch (usually with grenades and cannons though), but at emperor they seem to catch up too quickly. Of course, 10 galleons full of units will probably suffice if they're at parity even...the trick in that scenario is to backstab somebody so that there's no SoD to worry about...just garrison units. Or, just pick someone with crappy defenses .

 

[Sleepless]

Well a bit late starting this one but here goes.

Emp/Normal

Checkpoint 1 - 50AD

Spoiler :

Decided to settle 1N which I'm happy with. A quick scout aroung the little bit of island I could get to revealed the stone and not a lot else. Plan was to go for GLh and Mids, I also built the Oracle (MC) very late so doesn't seem like there are any Industrious civs around. A GG has been born in a distant land so some ones keeping busy. Have scouted the islands and can see someones borders not sure who yet but would need to build a city on the island to reach them.

Mistakes made so far. I'm very slow in settling our island (3 cities at the moment )and the adjacent ones. Especially with the GLh they would virtually pay for themselves so the plan is to rex as quick as possible but keep the capital on wonders. Techs went Fish/Mining/Sailing/BW/Masonry/AH (should have gone agr first) Agr/Pot/Writing/Maths/Myst/Poly/Priest/Aesth/MC from Oracle/currently researching IW. I can see health being a problem so I'm going to have a try at the Hanging Gardens as well. Just noticed the ToA hasn't been built yet so give that a go as well.

My small lands.

The Capital

I will be settling most of my GP in this city. I'm going to go for currency/CoL and Civil Service as the next techs with Lit put in there somewhere.

 

[Bleys]

Checkpoint #3:

Spoiler :

Saddly, I have not been attentive in taking screenshots, so an essay will have to do. I will try to keep it simple.

Once I met all the AIs, and notices SB was in the lead in most categories, points, power, and land, I got a bit concerned. Knowing him to be a powerful AI when he gets in that position, I decided I had to get more land to compete. So that meant attacking an AI. I chose Wang first.

I took Seoul with ease, and that was that, Wang capitulated, he only had 4 cities, so I guess losing a quarter of his empire was enough. I decided to let him live, since I now had the foothold I needed. I starts churning out units and Galleons to carry them. Many round trips later, I had a sizable army, and Zara (along with his Vassal, Boudi) was next.

It took 3 wars to get him, but in the end, I took all 3 of Boudis remaining cities (all on the west coast of that landmass) and 5 cities from Zara. I keep pressing and pressing him down into the SE corner. He capitulated shortly after I took Boudis last city, with only 3 cities remaining himself.

So now I have my sights set on SB. His cultural pressure on my land from Zara and Boudi is extreme, I will have to move soon, but in typical SB fashion, I ended up losing a couple key techs to his spys. That sucks, but now I have Combustion, and am building Destroyers and Transports, and will soon be able to start taking SB down. Hopefully, I can take a few cities and really quick. I have a pretty solid mix of Cannons, Cav and Infantry. SB just got Artillery though, and stole Assembly Line, so I am a tad nervous. He will be tricky.

Enjoying the cat and mouse though. He has Sids Sushi, which I really want, in my first target city (also the Tao Holy City, and most of that continent is Tao, and its shrined, wish I had saved Wall Street now, but oh well). Once I get a few destroyers for the coastal bombardment I am making my move on 3 cities. More later, and I will try to take some screenies! Great game, lots of fun!